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User's Guide - tmake
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<p><h1 align=center>User's Guide - tmake</h1>


<hr>
<h2>Introduction</h2>

tmake is an easy-to-use tool from Trolltech to create and maintain
makefiles for software projects.  It can be a painful task to manage
makefiles manually, especially if you develop for more than one platform
or use more than one compiler.  tmake automates and streamlines this
process and lets you spend your valuable time on writing code, not
makefiles.

<p>
Our main motivation for developing tmake was that we spent far too much
time maintaining makefiles for <a href="http://www.trolltech.com/qt/">Qt</a>,
our cross-platform GUI toolkit. Qt supports around 15 flavors of Unix,
Microsoft Windows, and around 15 different C++ compilers.  We looked at
GNU autoconf, but it was Unix-specific and not flexible enough in our
opinion. Our makefile system also had to deal with Qt <a
href="http://doc.trolltech.com/metaobjects.html">meta object compiler</a>
(moc) issues. The moc program extracts meta information from C++ files and
generates a C++ file with data tables etc.  It takes extra work to add
makefile rules for the moc and wanted to automate this task.

<p>
tmake is written in Perl and requires that you have installed perl version
5 or newer. Basic use of tmake requires no perl knowledge, but if you know
perl you can extend tmake and write your own makefile templates.

<p>
<b>Windows users:</b> The tmake distribution for Win32 includes tmake.exe
(built by the perl2exe utility) and you do not need to download and
install perl unless you want to modify the tmake source code or run other
perl scripts.  You can download perl for Win32 (Windows NT and 95) from <a
href="http://www.activestate.com">www.activestate.com</a>

<p>
tmake is free software and you may use, copy, modify and distribute tmake
and its documentation for any purpose and without any fee.  See the
LICENSE file for details.

<p>
Feedback is highly appreciated. Contact the author, Haavard Nord <a
href="mailto:hanord@trolltech.com">(hanord@trolltech.com)</a>, if you have
ideas, patches etc. for tmake.

<hr>
<h2>Installation</h2>

<ol>
<li>Make sure you have perl version 5 or later installed (optional
for Windows users).
<li>Unpack the tmake tar.gz archive for Unix or the tmake .zip file for Windows.
<li>Set the TMAKEPATH environment variable to the directories
containing the template files (see below).
<li>Add the tmake/bin directory to your PATH.
</ol>

Here are some examples:<p>
<strong>Unix Bourne shell:</strong><pre>
    TMAKEPATH=/local/tmake/lib/linux-g++
    PATH=$PATH:/local/tmake/bin
    export TMAKEPATH PATH
</pre>

<strong>Unix C shell:</strong><pre>
    setenv TMAKEPATH /local/tmake/lib/linux-g++
    setenv PATH $PATH:/local/tmake/bin
</pre>

<strong>Microsoft Windows:</strong><pre>
    set TMAKEPATH=c:\tmake\lib\win32-msvc
    set PATH=%PATH%;c:\tmake\bin
</pre>

<p>
The template directory name has the form <em>platform</em>-<em>compiler</em>
and contains a platform configuration file (tmake.conf) and tmake template
files.

<p>
Supported platforms: AIX, Data General, FreeBSD, HPUX, SGI Irix, Linux,
NetBSD, OpenBSD, OSF1/DEC, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, Ultrix, Unixware and
Win32.

<p>
You can find your platform-compiler combination in the <tt>tmake/lib</tt>.

<p>
<b>Unix users:</b> tmake requires that perl is in /usr/bin. If your
version of perl is elsewehere, either change the first line of tmake or
make a small shell script which invokes tmake with the correct perl.


<hr>
<h2>Getting Started</h2>

Let's assume you have a small Qt application consisting of one C++ header
file and two source files.

First you need to create a tmake project file, e.g. hello.pro:<pre>
  HEADERS   =  hello.h
  SOURCES   =  hello.cpp main.cpp
  TARGET    =  hello
</pre>

Then run tmake to create a Makefile:<pre>
  tmake hello.pro -o Makefile
</pre>
And finally:<pre>
  make
</pre>
This builds the hello program. Remember to set the <code>TMAKEPATH</code>
environment variable before you run tmake.
<p>
See <a href="m-linux-gcc.html">Makefile for Linux/g++</a>.<br>
See <a href="m-win32-msvc.html">Makefile for Win32/msvc</a>
(Microsoft Visual C++).<br>


<hr>
<h2>Makefile Templates</h2>

The tmake distribution includes three makefile templates and one
configuration file for each platform/compiler combination.  The
<code>TMAKEPATH</code> environment variable tells tmake where to find
these files:
<p>
<table border="0">
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>app.t</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Creates a makefile for building applications.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>lib.t</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Creates a makefile for building libraries.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>subdirs.t</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Creates a makefile for building targets in subdirectories.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>tmake.conf</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>This configuration file contains compiler options and lists
	    tools and libraries.
    </tr>
</table>


<p>
The hello.pro project file above does not have a <code>TEMPLATE</code> or
a <code>CONFIG</code> variable.  The default template is <tt>app</tt> (the .t
extension is optional) and the default configuration is <tt>qt warn_on
release</tt>.

This project file produces exactly the same result as the hello.pro
above:<pre>
  TEMPLATE =  app
  CONFIG   =  qt warn_on release
  HEADERS  =  hello.h
  SOURCES  =  hello.cpp main.cpp
  TARGET   =  hello
</pre>



<h4>Makefile Configuration</h4>

<p>
The <code>CONFIG</code> variable is recognized by both the app.t and lib.t
templates and specifies what compiler options to use and which extra
libraries to link in.

These options control the compilation flags:
<p>
<table border="0">
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>release</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>Compile with optimization enabled, ignored if
    "debug" is specified.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>debug</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>Compile with debug options enabled.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>warn_on</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The compiler should emit more warnings than normally, ignored if
     "warn_off" is specified.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>warn_off</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The compiler should emit no warnings or as few as possible.</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<p>
These options defines the application/library type:
<p>
<table border="0">
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>qt</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a Qt application/library and requires Qt header
     files/library.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>opengl</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target requires the OpenGL (or Mesa) headers/libraries.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>thread</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a multi-threaded application or library.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>x11</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a X11 application or library.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>windows</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a Win32 window application (app.t only).</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>console</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a Win32 console application (app.t only).</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>dll</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a shared object/DLL.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>staticlib</td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td>
    <td>The target is a static library (lib.t only).</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<p>
As an example, if the hello application uses both Qt and OpenGL and you
want to compile it for debugging, your <code>CONFIG</code> line should
read:<pre>
  CONFIG = qt opengl debug
</pre>

<p>
The most common tmake options and project variables are described here.
See the tmake <a href="tmake_ref.html">reference manual</a> for
details.<p>



<h4>The Application Template</h4>

The application template, app.t, lets you compile and link executable
programs or shared objects (DLLs).

This template recognizes several variables.
<p>
<table border="0">
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>HEADERS</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Header files.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>SOURCES</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Source files.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>TARGET</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Name of executable (adds .exe if on Windows).</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>DESTDIR</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Where to put the target.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>DEFINES</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Tell compiler to define C preprocessor macros (-D option).</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>INCLUDEPATH</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Sets the include file search path for the compiler (-I
        option).
	</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>DEPENDPATH</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Sets the dependency search path for tmake.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>DEF_FILE</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Win32 only: Link with a .def file.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>RC_FILE</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Win32 only: Use a .rc file (compile to temporary .res).
	</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>RES_FILE</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Win32 only: Link with a .res file.
	</td>
    </tr>
</table>

<p>


<h4>The Library Template</h4>

The library template, lib.t, lets you compile and create static or shared
libraries.

<p>
The lib.t template supports the same project variables as app.t, but also
<code>VERSION</code>.  <code>VERSION</code> is the version number of the
target library, e.g. 1.40.  The version is important for shared libraries.



<h4>The Subdirs Template</h4>

The subdirs template, subdirs.t, lets you invoke make in subdirectories.

<p>The <code>SUBDIRS</code> variable contains the name of all subdirectories to
be processed.


<h4>Special Templates for Microsoft Visual C++</h4>

If you have Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0, you can use two special templates to
generate a MSVC++ IDE project (.dsp file).  After you have generated
e.g. hello.dsp, choose "File"->"Open Workspace" and select the hello.dsp
file.  Visual C++ will then create a workspace (.dsw file) for you.<p>
<table border="0">
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>vcapp.t</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Creates an application project file (Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0
	only).</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>vclib.t</td>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Creates a library project file (Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0
	only).</td>
    </tr>
</table>

<p>
Run tmake to create a hello.dsp file (use -t to override the default
template):<pre>
  tmake -t vcapp -o hello.dsp hello.pro
</pre>


<hr>
<h2>Project File Syntax</h2>

The tmake project file has a very simple syntax.  You may set
project variables, append to project variables, remove from
project variable and substitute project variables.

To set a project variable:<pre>
    HEADERS = gui.h xml.h url.h
</pre>

If you cannot fit everything on one line, use '\' to split it up:<pre>
    HEADERS = gui.h \
	      xml.h \
	      url.h
</pre>

<p>
Project variables contains lists of items (such as header files,
compiler options etc.) and use whitespace to separate the items.
This means that tmake cannot deal with items containing whitespace.
The INCLUDEPATH variable is an exception. If INCLUDEPATH contains
one or more semicolons (;), tmake uses the semicolon to separate
the include directories, hence you can have include directories
containing whitespace (this is quite common on Windows).

<p>
Here is an example:<pre>
    INCLUDEPATH = C:\Program Files\DBLib\Include;C:\qt\include
</pre>

<p>
tmake supports <em>project variable expension</em>. Use $$ to expand
any project variable:<pre>
    ALLFILES = $$HEADERS $$SOURCES
</pre>

<p>
Most often you assign some value to a project variable, but you can
also add to, remove from or replace parts of a project variable.<pre>
    A   = abc
    X   = xyz
    A  += def			# A = abc def
    X  *= xyz			# X = xyz
    B   = $$A			# B = abc def
    B  -= abc			# B = def
    X  /= s/y/Y/		# X = xYz
</pre>
The *= operation adds the value if the variable does not already contain it.
The /= operation performs regular expression substitution.

<p>
You can also set variables from the command line when running the tmake
program. For instance, if you want to generate a makefile with debug
information:<pre>
    tmake "CONFIG+=debug" hello.pro
</pre>

<p>
Use the <tt>unix:</tt> or <tt>win32:</tt> (conditional) qualifier if you want a
platform-specific variable:<pre>
    SOURCES	   =   common.cpp   # common for all platforms
    unix:SOURCES   +=  unix.cpp	    # additional sources for Unix
    win32:SOURCES  +=  win32.cpp    # additional sources for Windows
    unix:LIBS	   +=  -lm	    # on Unix we need the math lib
</pre>
If none of the platforms match, tmake looks for the variable in CONFIG
variable:<pre>
    debug:SOURCES  +=  dbgstuff.cpp # additional source for debugging
</pre>

Finally, you can set platform and compiler-dependent variables:<pre>
    linux-g++:TMAKE_CFLAGS = -fno-rtti
</pre>

<p>
You may define your own project variables to be used by custom templates.  A
project variable is stored in <code>%project</code>, which is an associative
Perl array.  Access it like this: <code>$project{"var"}</code> or via the
function <code>Project("var")</code>. For example, after reading
"hello.pro", <code>$project{"SOURCES"}</code> contains "hello.cpp
main.cpp".<p>


<hr>
<h2><a name="usage"></a>Running tmake</h2>

Usage:<pre>
  tmake [options] <em>project files or project settings</em>
</pre>
Options:<pre>
  -e expr    Evaluate the Perl expression.  Ignores the template file.
  -nodepend  Don't generate dependency information.
  -o <em>file</em>    Write output to <em>file</em> instead of stdout.
  -t <em>file</em>    Specify a template <em>file</em>.
  -unix      Force tmake into Unix mode.
  -v         Verbose/debugging on.
  -win32     Force tmake into Win32 mode.
</pre>

The -t option overrides any <code>TEMPLATE</code> variable in the project file.
<p>
The default project file extension is ".pro". The default template file
extension is ".t".  If you do not specify these extension tmake will
automatically add them for you.

<p>
Example of basic use:<pre>
    tmake hello -o Makefile
</pre>

<p>
Example of how to create a makefile with debugging information:<pre>
    tmake hello "CONFIG+=debug" -o Makefile
</pre>

<p>
Exmaple of how to specify a TMAKEPATH:<pre>
    tmake "TMAKEPATH=/local/tmake/lib/hpux-g++" hello.pro -o Makefile
</pre>

Example of how to evaluate a perl expression (print names of headers
and source files):<pre>
    tmake hello -e 'Expand("HEADERS","SOURCES")'
</pre>

Note that project settings on the command line must come after the
project file, otherwise they will be overridden by the settings in the
project file.

<hr>
<h2><a name="progen"></a>The progen Utility</h2>

The progen utility creates project files for you. It can be used like
this:<pre>
  progen -n hello -o hello.pro
</pre>
If no .cpp or .h files are specified on the command line, progen
searches for .cpp and .h (except moc_*.cpp) in the current directory
and below.
<p>
Usage:<pre>
  progen [options] [<em>C/C++ header files and source files</em>]
</pre>
Options:<pre>
  -lower   Lower-case letters in filenames (useful on Windows).
  -n <em>name</em>  Specify a project name (<code>TARGET</code>).
  -o <em>file</em>  Write output to <em>file</em> instead of stdout.
  -t <em>file</em>  Specify a template <em>file</em>.
</pre>


<hr>
<h2>Advanced Topics</h2>

In most cases you will be happy with using tmake as described above, but
sometimes you need to add special compiler options or even add new
makefile rules. This chapter describes how to customize your makefiles.

<h4>Conditional Project Settings</h4>

If you need a special compiler option etc., you can add platform-dependent
settings in your project file:<pre>  
  solaris-cc:TMAKE_CC     = /opt/bin/CC_5.0
  solaris-cc:TMAKE_CFLAGS = -pts
  unix:TMAKE_LIBS         = -lXext
  win32:INCLUDEPATH       = c:\myinclude
  win32-borland:DEFINES   = NO_BOOL
</pre>

You can prefix a project variable with unix: or win32: to make it specific for
either Unix or Windows. You can also prefix a variable with
<em>platform-compiler</em> 

<h4>Your Own Templates</h4>

If you know Perl programming, there is virtually no limitation to what you
can do with tmake.  First you need to know how tmake works.

<h4>Template Processing</h4>

When you run tmake, it first reads the <tt>tmake.conf</tt> file.
This configuration file has the same syntax as the project file.

tmake then reads the project file and sets the project variables it
finds, e.g. <code>HEADERS</code>, <code>SOURCES</code> etc.

All variables and values are stored in a global associative Perl hash
array called <code>project</code>.  For example,
<code>$project{"SOURCES"}</code> contains "hello.cpp main.cpp"
after processing hello.pro.

When both the <tt>tmake.conf</tt> and the project files have been
read, tmake starts reading the template file line by line and
executes any Perl code it finds in the template.

<ul>
<li>Anything after <code>#$</code> until newline is
    evaluated as perl code. The perl code is substituted
    with the contents of the <code>$text</code>
    variable.
<li>Block of perl code: <code>#${</code> until
    <code>#$}</code>.
<li>Comments; <code>#!</code> until newline is stripped.
<li>Anything else is copied directly from the template to
    the output.
</ul>

<p>
Example:<pre>
    #! This is a comment which will be removed.
    This text will appear in the output.
    #$ $text = "The header file(s) are: " . $project{"HEADERS"};
    # This text also appears in the output.
    #${
       $a = 12;
       $b = 13;
       $text = $a * $b;
    #$}
    That's all.
</pre>
Output:<pre>
    This text will appear in the output.
    The header file(s) are: hello.h
    # This text also appears in the output.
    156
    That's all.
</pre>


<h3>Using tmake With Lex and Yacc</h3>

The standard tmake templates knows how to process C and C++ files, but
sometimes you need to process additional files and link them into your
project.  A typical example is to process lex and yacc files when you're
building a parser.

<p>
Parser template:<pre>
  #!
  #! parser.t: This is a custom template for building a parser
  #!
  #$ IncludeTemplate("app.t");

  ####### Lex/yacc programs and options

  LEX	    =	flex
  YACC    =	#$ $text = ($is_unix ? "yacc -d" : "byacc -d");

  ####### Lex/yacc files

  LEXIN   =	#$ Expand("LEXINPUT");
  LEXOUT  =	lex.yy.c
  YACCIN  =	#$ Expand("YACCINPUT");
  YACCOUT =	y.tab.c
  YACCHDR =	y.tab.h
  PARSER  =	#$ Expand("PARSER");

  ####### Process lex/yacc files

  $(LEXOUT): $(LEXIN)
          $(LEX) $(LEXIN)

  $(PARSER): $(YACCIN) $(LEXOUT)
          $(YACC) $(YACCIN)
          #$ $text = ($is_unix ? "-rm -f " : "-del ") . '$(PARSER)';
          #$ $text = ($is_unix ? "-mv " : "-ren ") . '$(YACCOUT) $(PARSER)'; 
</pre>

The parser template adds some extra rules to the application template
in order to build the lex and yacc portions of the project.  This
template is portable across Unix and Windows since it generates different
commands depending on the <code>$is_unix</code> variable.

<p>
To learn more about the Expand() function and other Perl functions which
tmake provides, consult the <a href="tmake_ref.html">reference manual</a>.

<p>
Example project file:<pre>
  TEMPLATE  = parser.t
  CONFIG    = console release
  LEXINPUT  = lexer.l
  YACCINPUT = grammar.y
  PARSER    = parser.cpp
  SOURCES   = $$PARSER    \
              node.cpp    \
              asmgen.cpp
  TARGET    = parser
</pre>

Here we use macro expansion <code>$$PARSER</code> to avoid writing parser.cpp
two places.


<h3>Counting the Number of Code Lines</h3>

tmake is generic since it is based on Perl. You can create your own
templates for other purposes than producing makefiles.  Here is an example
template that counts the number of code lines in our project.

<p>
Template wc.t:<pre>
  #! Template that count number of C++ lines.
  The number of C++ code lines for #$ $text=$project_name;
  #${
    $files = $project{"HEADERS"} . " " . $project{"SOURCES"};
    $text = `wc -l $files`;
  #$}
</pre>
Run it:<pre>
  tmake -t wc hello
</pre>
Output:<pre>
  The number of C++ code lines for hello.pro
       25    hello.h
       98    hello.cpp
       38    main.cpp
      161    total
</pre>
This will only work if the wc program is installed on your system.


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